AI agents are not agents


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If I believe that AI agents are... The next big thingHere's what I'd like to do at a minimum:

“Dear AI Agent, Take control of my portfolio and generate at least 30% annual return while maintaining a conservative risk profile to avoid overexposure.”

30% isn't a lot in crypto terms, but it's enough to beat the S&P 500. Because I specified "conservative," this proxy is supposed to err on the side of caution and only interact with DeFi smart contracts that have been battle-tested for at least a year.

For example, a dealer might look to Pendle to secure capital in a PT-yielding trade involving only “premium” protocols like Ethena (USDe) or Aave (GHO), while avoiding risky new collaterals like USUAL (Currently 147%).

Since I specified "30% APY", the agent should avoid low-yield PT like stETH (for now 3.2%).

The agent might alternatively justify that in a bull market year, ETH would see a price as high as $5K, an increase of 44% from today's price. Instead of farming the returns, the dealer will simply invest my money in ETH and possibly bet it on Lido for a risk-free return of 3%.

Depending on market fluctuations and black swans that could lead to a collapse in the price of ETH, the agent must be quick enough to exchange it back to a stablecoin in a timely manner.

Because I told the agent "conservatively", airdrop farming should be completely out of the question given the long time frame between point farming and actual airdropping of the projects (too much risk!).

This is not an unreasonable standard – “non-KYC AI agents on blockchain rails” is, after all, the rallying cry that has gathered around Crypto Twitter.

As far as I can tell, there is no reliable way for AI agents to navigate DeFi yet (Frax Finance's artificial intelligence The project may be one).

As Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital said on a recent Steady Lads podcast PodcastToday, AI agents are more like Wizard of Oz-style agents who lack long-term plans and do not make financial transfers to achieve goals.

Instead, what we find is the middle AI crypto hysteria These are AI-branded memecoins, AI-powered virtual chatbots, and a lot of infrastructure operation.

We already have a lot of meme currencies, and using “AI” is just marketing. Virtual chatbots like Luna already exist in Web2, and introducing a token doesn't make them particularly new.

Crazy infrastructure around Launchpads and frameworks It may be necessary, but there is still a way to go before we actually see it agent and Independent Agents.

The closest thing we have to “utility-based” agents at the moment are those that collect social media data to produce an alpha feed, such as aixbt.

I realize that this train of thought is probably missing the point, which is that the bigger story in what appears to be the most bullish year in crypto is going to be a "number going up" regardless.

However, what AI agents seem to lack is plausible credibility that would make an unthinking investor buy into their narrative wholeheartedly.

For example, NFTs in 2020 had that veneer of legitimacy. the story Pushing NFTs – non-changeable pieces of art – into the mainstream has been difficult, but all the technology pieces have fallen into place. For AI agents, the distance between meme and reality is still very wide.


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